OSHA proposes GHS

On September 30, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the Department of Labor published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that starts the long process of introducing the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) into North America.

The Great MSDS Hoax

From EHS Today:

In theory, MSDSs provide users with information regarding hazardous substances and recommended safety precautions. While the concept behind these documents is good, my experience suggests that the information often is too vague or limited, making MSDSs amount to nothing more than a tragic hoax.

Chemical Buyers: Heed caution signs on road to e-sourcing

From Purchasing Magazine:

Supplier relationships, compliance issues take center stage when buying chemicals online.
By Rich Weissman — Purchasing, 4/10/2008

While e-sourcing has found its way into nearly every spend area imaginable today, buying chemicals online requires significantly more attention than most spend areas. A buyer’s need for detailed product specifications and regulatory compliance information often outpaces the need for speed in sourcing chemicals, and further emphasizes the need for strong supplier relationships.

Larry Giunipero, the ISM Professor of Purchasing and Supply Management at Florida State University in Tallahassee sees compliance as the major bottleneck in easily purchasing chemicals online. “There is an element of control in the chemical purchase that may not be so prevalent in other online purchases,” says Giunipero. “Buyers have to be concerned with material safety data sheets (MSDS), hazmat issues, and even DOT regulations for the transportation and storage of chemicals.”

Improving Compliance Through Accurate MSDSs and Hazmat Inventory

From Occupational Hazards:

The challenge today for organizations is to effectively manage their entire chemical inventory so they can stay in compliance and avoid the dangers, fines and fees associated with not doing so.
In the hazmat world today, most large organizations follow a time-honored process for identifying critical compliance needs and spend the money necessary to make it work. It is a process that tilts the compliance board in advantage of the bigger players.

It starts with a sophisticated purchasing or procurement system, usually with a module that enables environmental health and safety (EHS) staff to review and approve all incoming hazardous items. Nothing arrives into a big company unnoticed. Next, the chemical or product is tracked through some type of bar code or RFID-tagged inventory management system, and data on its location and specific usage is recorded.

Material safety data sheets (MSDSs) are obtained and tracked, using a sophisticated document and data management system that is tied into procurement and chemical tracking. At the end of all this, compliance reports required by EPA and local agencies are generated and submitted, usually electronically. At this point, management plans are made or modified, staff are trained or retrained and the company moves forward safely until the next monthly review period.

MSDS Business Opportunities in India

Globalization has made the world a small village where business in one country has an effect on the others. This is more relevant for a developing country like India, which is emerging as a place for sourcing raw materials, finished consumer product or services. MSDS and related activities will certainly play an important role in modifying and influencing the way the business is done in future.

It started in the eighties, when Multinational companies with the manufacturing base in India started demanding MSDSs from the Indian raw material suppliers. Without knowledge of the fundamentals of MSDS compliance, manufacturers provided only technical literature and information on the storage and handling of the raw material supplied. In the nineties, exports became more important as well as the need for more detailed MSDSs for employee safety in the importer’s workplace. Now, with all importers being concerned about the Environment and Safety, even more emphasis is placed on material safety data. Implementation of REACH by the EU makes MSDSs an important and useful source document for Environment, Occupational Health and Safety.

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